Cate Blanchett hints at retirement after scooping best actress Oscar

Cate Blanchett dropped a bombshell after picking up her best actress Oscar by hinting she may soon retire from acting.

The 44-year-old – who won the gong for her role in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine – said it may be time to quit while she’s ahead after becoming the first Australian actor ever to win two Oscars.

‘Maybe it’s time to stop (acting),’ she said backstage at LA’s Dolby theatre on Sunday after being quizzed about how she will continue to challenge herself.

‘Roles like this don’t come along very often, and as I think I said, or I hope I said, it was a real synthesis for me of the long, deep connection I’ve had with the theatre. And the kind of often sort of intangible connection I’ve had to film.’

Echoing her sentiments from her winner’s speech earlier in the night, where she thanked the Sydney Theatre Company for making her ‘a better actress’, she added: ‘I don’t think I could have approached (Blue Jasmine) in as bold a way as perhaps I did, risking for a year as I did, without having worked with the folks at the Sydney Theatre Company as intensively as I have.’